USITC says: Those artificial stones are subsidized and violate fair trade / Accusations also against quartz from India and Turkey and against ceramics from China
Professor Gerd Merke, secretary general of Euroroc, the umbrella organization of the European stone associations, sent us the following mail:
„Dear all,
we have been discussing possible U.S. import duties on natural stone against China etc. For the moment we are lucky. The US-Trade Commission just took artificial stone in the focus. We have a slight indirect effect on the transport industry (logistics). Please have a look at the paper below. Our contact person in Washington D.C. is open for further questions in case you have any.“
Merke refers to a press release of the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) from June 11, 2019:
„The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) today determined that a U.S. industry is materially injured by reason of imports of quartz surface products from China that the U.S. Department of Commerce has determined are subsidized and sold in the United States at less than fair value.
Chairman David S. Johanson and Commissioners Irving A. Williamson, Meredith M. Broadbent, Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, and Jason E. Kearns voted in the affirmative.
As a result of the USITC’s affirmative determinations, Commerce will issue antidumping and countervailing duty orders on imports of this product from China.
The Commission also made a negative finding concerning critical circumstances with regard to imports of these products from China.
As a result, imports of quartz surface products from China will not be subject to retroactive antidumping or countervailing duties.
The Commission’s public report Quartz Surface Products from China (Inv. Nos. 701-TA-606 and 731-TA-1416 (Final), USITC Publication 4913, June 2019) will contain the views of the Commission and information developed during the investigations.
The report will be available by July 18, 2019; when available, it may be accessed on the USITC website at: https://www.usitc.gov/commission_publications_library.“
In May 2019, the USITC had already voted to continue investigations which might lead to tariffs against ceramic-tile imports from China including large-formats, Stone Update had reported.
Also in May, India and Turkey were accused of unfair trade practices in quartz-products.
(13.06.2019, USA: 06.13.2019)